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Obama's covert plans for climate

In his inaugural address, Obama announced his intentions for action on climate change. | AP Photo

But McCain left himself a little room for compromise, saying he'll wait for his 2008 White House rival to get more specific about his climate plans before staking out solid ground.

“I’m concerned about the issue and have been concerned about the issue,” the Arizona Republican said. “He’s the president. He just won reelection. We’re going to have to obviously listen carefully to what he has to say.”

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Current and former Obama aides insist that the agenda going forward will include big things on climate.

Former White House energy adviser Carol Browner said Obama has “consistently identified addressing climate change as a priority” and noted a number of his first-term accomplishments, including the new fuel economy standards for cars and trucks and doubling renewable energy production.

“There’s no reason to think he’s not preparing to take similar bold steps to build on his record and his comments in the inaugural address,” she said.

Browner also said she’s holding out hope that Obama could make progress on Capitol Hill on a “common-sense bipartisan energy and climate plan if the Congress were to consider one.”

Absent progress on the Hill and in conjunction with EPA's regulations, several sources said they could envision Obama trying to broker a deal with power companies to clamp down on their greenhouse gas emissions. But a big hurdle will be overcoming big differences among power companies that use a variety of fuels, from coal to natural gas to nuclear to renewables.

“I think that’s totally reasonable,” said a senior Obama administration official. “There’s going to be lots of conversations. The million dollar question is whether the industry is actually going to want to participate or are they going to start to want to play hard ball.”

Nikki Roy, of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions and a facilitator of past private talks with power companies, noted the industry “needs certainty” on the regulatory landscape ahead. “They need to build facilities that’ll last 30, 40, 50 years,” he said. “I don’t think it’s ridiculous. I hope it’s one thing the administration tries.”

Roy also said he doesn’t expect Obama to roll out his entire climate agenda at once. “It seems to me they’re trying to stay in control of the pacing and the narrative. It’s a complicated question on the timing of these various decisions,” he said. "But I do have more confidence after Monday that they are going to be looking for those options to weave climate into that broader narrative.”

In his inaugural, Obama pledged to respond to climate change “knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.”

But he may have given the best hint of what he sees as possible on climate change through another line in his inaugural that addressed his entire agenda.

“We must act, we must act knowing that our work will be imperfect,” he said. “We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial, and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, and 40 years, and 400 years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed an Obama quote to his first inaugural address when he gave the comment in June 2008 while declaring victory for the Democratic nomination.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 7:04 p.m. on January 23, 2013.